The gospel: do you know death is no more in the eternals?
I am sure you have heard Christians say, “Death is defeated!” But what does this really mean? How did Jesus Christ defeat death? Why is it that we still see people dying? The first thing you need to understand about God is that time does not exist in His realm. The spirit realm has no time. So, even though Jesus rose from the grave and defeated death, and is the first fruit of the resurrection, we still have yet to see this triumph fully manifest in the natural realm.
But first, let us talk about death. If there is one of the most traumatizing forces we humans can experience, death has to be one of, if not the most, traumatizing, especially if death occurs tragically or unexpectedly in a family or with a loved one. We as human beings naturally have a fear of death that has been inherited ever since the fall. All of us, in one way or another, are afraid of death, unless we are delusional and in total denial.
Death was never a part of God’s plan. He is not a God of death, but of life. You may ask, “Well, why did God create the tree of knowledge of good and evil?” It is simple, God does not want robots or machines! There was nothing evil or wrong about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree was in nature like every other tree, only it was different. God told Adam not to eat it, that it was not good for food, and that if he did eat it, he would die. The evil was not the tree, but that Adam ate from the tree. So death occurred not because God created the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but because Adam rebelled. So again, evil is never sourced from God but from His creatures misusing their free will He gives them.
It was from that moment that Adam sinned, we all died. Death entered into humanity. Our spirits died to God, became dead in sin. Our bodies became sin, and they too became dead. We became walking, sinful, dead creatures. Sure, we live, but we are living in sin and dying!
So many religions will try to put a band-aid over a gaping wound when it comes to death, and it ultimately is because they don’t know how to deal with sin. Buddhists have no personal redemption, no personal resurrection, just “dissolution.” Very similar to Hinduism, they believe the soul is just on a “broken record” until one day, or in another life, this “cycle” reaches some kind of enlightened state after enough good deeds and chanting have somehow gotten you there; until then, death and suffering are a repeated state. Think about it, how awful that you have to keep dying over and over again until you get it right! That in itself is like torment!
In Islam, they believe in a bodily resurrection and a final judgement, but all that pressure is placed upon you. You have to strive and toil, and even then, there is no assurance that you will enter. Oh, and Mohammed is dead and still dead himself too; there is no Savior who conquered death! Similarly, Judaism believes in the same concept, only you have to keep the Law of Moses, except that if you are a Jew, they believe you are automatically saved!
All religions are based on something you must do to defeat death. How can humans defeat death when we are already dead? They all deny the desperate need of a Savior. They all deny the need for grace.
The beauty of the gospel is, “IT IS FINISHED!” (John 19:30).
The gospel is not what we can do; it is what God has done at the cross of Jesus Christ. God made the sacrifice; God does not want us to be “the eldest son” constantly toiling and working to be accepted like all these other religions. God had a plan all along that He would send His only begotten Son to save the world from death to be the Lamb who “takes away the sin of the world.” At the cross, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from the sins we have done in our life, the blood of Jesus atones for our fallen sinful state, the blood and cross of Jesus ends all broken records, ends all cycles, ends all rituals, ends all striving, ends all efforts that we attempt to save ourselves from death in sheer vanity and futility!
We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone! In Christ is the real substitution of life for life, death for death. His death is your life, and your sinful life was His death. You can run to other religions, you can run to other beliefs, and just deny this reality altogether, but you can’t hide from death! Death is always around the corner, but Jesus Christ has ended the trauma!
You see, look what Jesus said,
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
When you come to believe in Jesus Christ, He says that we may die. But in Him is a resurrection. There is a future hope that those who have died believing in Him from these dead and dying sinful bodies will be resurrected when He returns into immortal eternal life, and then there will be those who believe in him who “will never die.”
Think about that, those who are alive and believe in Jesus Christ when He returns will never die! They will be amongst those Christ foretold, who would not taste death until they see the Son of Man return! (Mark 9:1). God is Spirit, so yes, everything of Him is spiritual, but He created man with a physical, earthly body to perceive the spiritual things in the physical things. God cares about these bodies, and all our bodies our uniquely different, which is why we all have an individual personality! The soul is the mix of the spirit and the body. But the earthly body was only temporary; God wanted us to have a physical, heavenly, immortal body, and He has promised us this in Jesus Christ.
So, why don’t you stop running around and trying to escape death, but instead, face the One who faced death on behalf of us all, Jesus Christ of Nazareth! The Son of God!
Not only did Jesus Christ face death at His cross, but He also put an end to it when He rose from the grave on the third day. His resurrection was physical, literal, and a matter of fact. Jesus became resurrected from the dead back to life into immortality, as a man and God. He now sits ascended in heaven, as the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He achieved for us the total victory over death. Even though we are still in a season where we see death happening around us, it does not have the last word!
“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:18).
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory…O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’” (1 Corinthians 15:50-55).
The hope of a Christian is not just in this life; there is another life. Only this coming life is one of a physical resurrection, an immortal, sinless body, victorious over death, and in union with Christ forever and ever. Only in Jesus Christ is the victory over death. Only in Jesus Christ is the victory over the cycles of sin.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live” (John 5:25).
So listen to the voice of Jesus Christ now! Come believe in Him—leave behind your pathetic attempts over death, and be saved from your sins!
May God give you the faith to see!